Written for the Quidditch league, Appleby Arrows, as Chaser 1. I had the prompts "sore" "bleeding" and "Helios"
Enjoy!
The sun shone brightly throughout the burrow and the troublesome twins wondered the neighbourhood, and, as we all know, nothing good ever comes of that. As their wondering eyes scanned the long grass Fred's settled upon a shining, white pebble. This white pebble was different than any he'd seen before. It glowed. He took George and went to inspect further.
"What do you think it is, George?" Asked Fred, his eyes still glued to the foreign object. George got closer to it, inspecting it, but never allowing himself to touch it. They still weren't sure what it was, and he wasn't stupid. Turns out that his brother might be.
"More importantly, what do your think it does?" with this, Fred reached his long hand towards the pebble, and, whist holding on to his brother, he grabbed the pebble. They felt a familiar sensation as the world around them changed and morphed. And, despite having done this before, they both fell unceremoniously on the ground, with more force than necessary. They now found themselves, in a forest, a thick, dark forest, with only the occasional lone ray of light bringing the needed light to navigate. Flowers lined the bottom of the trees, and an alleyway was very distinctively laced out in front of them.
"A port key, that's what it is! And you touched it!" George reprimanded his brother. "Now, where are we, that's the question. And how do we get back?"
"Simple! We touch the pebble again, and voila! We're home! " said Fred as he looked for the pebble. Instead, however, he found a pouch; one full of pebbles, which looked exactly like the one he'd held just moments before. "Uhhhh, George? I think we might have a slight problem..." He noted, as he raised the little pouch to allow his twin to see the contents. In response, to this, George sapt out a few words, some more appropriate than others. Their whole demeanour. Changed they we no longer just joking, laughing, and making pranks. Now they were suck in here, with no obvious way to get home.
"Well, I guess we follow through?" George suggested. At the scoff that his brother gave, he added "well then, what do you suppose we should do? Cause I'm not gonna stay here and rot!" Fred took a deep breath and then nodded at George.
"I guess you're right. Do we follow the path?"
In the end, after many arguments pro and contra, they did follow the trail. The trail led them to a house like they've never seen before. It was made of ginger bread and every other sweet you might think of. If it exists, it was part of that house. Slowly, but surely the approached it and each ripped off a small bite from the windowsill. As they tasted it, obscene sounds escaped their lips.
"This is, hand shown, the best gingerbread I've ever had! Though don't tell mum about this, cause she'll whoop my ass. " exclaimed Fred. Just then, the large gingerbread door opened with a creak, and through it came a woman, with long, crazy, black hair and black attire. Her face was stretched into a large smile, one that they've seen people use as they were about to do something truly cruel. That smile sent shivers down their spines, and made them stop eating out of fear.
"Well well well. What do we have here? Brothers, twins even, eating away at my wonderful house. What brings you here, I wonder? " she paused, her voice no longer screeching " well, never mind that. Come inside, come and have some more! " she invited the two. Now, they, as a collective were not stupid.
They knew that there was absolutely nothing good that could come out of this whole, gingerbread lady, thing even though her gingerbread was delicious. Therefore, the declined. Politely, quietly, but definitely declined. But their feet moved them inside the house and then down the stairs. There, waiting for them, was a large cage, a cage full of cakes, and sweets, and everything in else in between . They made their way inside. Just as the cage door closed, they regained consciousness. And did they scream, and shout and try to pull the cage apart, but to no avail.
"Somehow, this seems awfully familiar... " noted George, a few minutes after they stopped all the fuss. Despite that revelation, neither of them truly caught on to their surroundings. But they had a plan. When she would next come here, they'd steal her key, get out, and away from there. Ok, perhaps that wasn't the most organised plan, or the most accurate, but they truly hoped that it would work. It was the best they could do when they were as sore as they were. Thankfully, they weren't bleeding.
So, as she came in the next morning, they had a shock when she opened the door, and made them walk back upstairs. Once again in the main house, they could see many colourful cakes, cupcakes, and all sorts of sweets. It seemed as though the house was buried under them. There was almost no open surface that had no sweets. She fed them, all sorts of things, and they were sure they will be sick, but they weren't. And when they finally snapped out of it, they were still there. The lady, whom they recognised as Bellatrix Lestrange, was no longer paying attention. She was preparing the oven, talking about how good they were going to taste.
"And even though neither of you is truly ready, there's twice the meat, so that's perfect!" This moment of distraction may have cost her life, for Fred finally realised why this all seemed so familiar, and what they had to do. He'd be lying if he'd have said that he didn't enjoy it. Because what he got off hi chair, and then pushed her right in the oven, and watched as the flames of Helios enveloped her. Just like that, both brother opened their eyes and found themselves outside their house, sitting in the sun.
"Fred?"
"Yes, George?"
"I'm never eating any cake ever again."
